Tighter Rules For Singapore, Taiwan Arrivals

Hong Kong has tightened the quarantine rules for people arriving from Taiwan and Singapore, both of which are seeing a resurgence of Covid-19 cases, with some recent arrivals who are isolating at home instructed to go to hotels.

Officials say the quarantine rules need to be stepped up because mutant virus strains had been confirmed in recent cases in both territories.

The administration had announced on Sunday that anyone arriving from Taiwan would have to go to a quarantine hotel instead of isolating at home, but officials have now decided that people who arrived on or before Saturday will also have to transfer from their home to a hotel.

People serving 14-day quarantine after coming from Singapore or Taiwan will now have to stay in quarantine, whether at home or in a hotel, and take further tests on the 16th and 19th days after arrival. They'll only be allowed to leave after they receive the result of the latter test.

Fully vaccinated arrivals, for whom quarantine had been reduced to seven days, will have to stay in their place of quarantine until they receive the result of a test to be taken on the 12th day after their arrival. They will also have to take tests on their 16th and 19th days in Hong Kong, but won't be required to stay in quarantine while they await their results.

In both cases, people who need to go to a testing centre by public transport will have to travel directly by taxi with no stops along the way.

A government spokesman said: "The government will continue to closely monitor the epidemic situation of various places, the prevalence of new virus variants, vaccination progress, and changes in the volume of cross-boundary passenger traffic, and will adjust the boarding and compulsory quarantine requirements for persons arriving at Hong Kong from relevant places as the situation warrants."

Taiwan reported 240 new domestic cases on Tuesday.